I live in Phoenix, Arizona and am planting my winter grass for the year. I am documenting the steps I have taken to help any other do it your self Lawn Engineers. The process isn’t that hard, however it does take patients and a little hard work.
As you can see here, my summer bermuda grass is looking like hell because I am killing it off about two weeks before seeding for winter. From my research seeding for winter should be done around the first week of October and probably no later than the third week. If its too hot, it will burn, and if its too cold at night, it wont grow properly.
Here is a series of pictures the day I had my lawn seeded (October 13th). I highly recommend paying a service to seed your lawn. I also highly recommend that you have all of your sprinklers in working order before the work is done. If not, your wasting your money.
The lawn service will need to thatch/trim your lawn. It took the crew of three guys about three hours to complete the job. In other words, it would take a DIY all day. The service runs about $175 (based on lawn size and location). The company I went with is Bim’s Lawn Service. The owner was knowledgeable, punctual, and an overall good guy. Here are the results:
Water three times a day ( 8am, 12pm, 4pm) for 8 minutes per sprinkler. The ground should always be damp 24/7, but should never be flooded for any long period of time. This watering should be carried out for two weeks. The grass should be fertilized once it has grown in. Here are the results after 1.5 weeks
Here is a spotty part
Here is what it should look like
These are the results as of 3.5 weeks in. Please remember I haven’t even fertilized yet.
This is the seed that was used on my lawn. It is a perennial rye that was over seeded and therefore used no manure to cover it. The idea is that it is more cost effective to over seed than it is to lay manure to insulate. This is a link to the seed used.
My final side note is about using water. My water bill is astronomical in the month of October. It lands somewhere in the $250 range, but is nowhere near that the rest of the winter. The reason I waste this much water is because I am outside daily on it, love to run, and need an extremely soft surface for my bad knees.
